Monday, December 07, 2009
Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie Part X
The tenth installment of Ernest Adams' annual column on poor game design decisions:
Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie - Tenth Anniversary Edition
This years' hit list: Psychic AI, Bizarre morality in merchants, NPCs in two places at once when the player deviates from the script, Overuse (and under-use) of a game feature or player ability in level design, lazy design documents, failure to understand technical limitations, mocking the player, having essential items become unobtainable, grinding (I actually kinda disagree with this one, unless grinding is *mandatory*), and perfect cover.
Adams acknowledges that the newest Twinkie Denial Conditions aren't as funny as past installments. But I suppose that means all the low-hanging fruit has already been harvested.
Labels: Game Design
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:38 AM (Permalink)
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The other is that the merchants have a peculiar sense of morality: they condone mugging but not burglary. What's that about?
If you steal something from a house, the angry owner might come looking. If you steal something from a corpse, the corpse is less likely to file a complaint?
If you steal something from a house, the angry owner might come looking. If you steal something from a corpse, the corpse is less likely to file a complaint?
@Whiner - Ah! It's not morality, it's pure practicality and self-interest! Brilliant!
@Tesh - I really like the No Twinkie articles too. Though I'd probably like them more if I didn't feel so guilty when I read them...
@Tesh - I really like the No Twinkie articles too. Though I'd probably like them more if I didn't feel so guilty when I read them...
My question to the morality issue is actually something more basic:
How do they know something is stolen? Almost everything in Oblivion looks the same. How can a shopkeeper know that i stole this apple from a house in a town a few kilometers away while the exactly same looking apple near it is mine?
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How do they know something is stolen? Almost everything in Oblivion looks the same. How can a shopkeeper know that i stole this apple from a house in a town a few kilometers away while the exactly same looking apple near it is mine?
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